Havasu Falls

The good thing about being between semesters on the holiday break is that I can try and catch up on the blog. A few months ago I caught up with my friend from Ricks College, Brit. He and his entourage were heading down to the Havasupai reservation on the Grand Canyon to hike Havasu Falls and invited me to tag along. This hike has been on my list for years, so I was excited for the chance.

With a borrowed Chevy Suburban I picked up the crew from the airport, made a quick stop by the house to rearrange the backpacks and fill up with water, then drove to the Hilltop Trailhead (36.160005°, -112.709277°). Due to the travel time, we started on the trail about 5:30pm to make the 9.7 mile hike to the campground. It was getting dark by the time we arrived at Supai village (36.236485°, -112.688881°), so we hiked past the sound of Navajo Falls and Havasu Falls in the dark without being able to see them. The campground was fairly full and it was difficult to see in the dark to find a good resting place, but we found a nice spot right next to the river toward the farthest end of the campground.

This, of course, was my first time here, but from what I read, the campground was expanded since being reconstructed after the flood of August 2008. We especially enjoyed the new triple and quad berth, solar-powered composting latrines. The erosional forces of the flood water altered the waterfalls significantly and was very evident when comparing photos I researched before the trip to what I saw while I was there. One of the falls, Navajo Falls, was wiped out completely and two new waterfalls were formed, New Navajo Falls and Rock Falls. You can read about the changes on the tribe's website (http://www.havasupaitribe.com/waterfalls.html).

Our first day, we traveled downstream from the campground to swim in Mooney Falls, then continued the hike down to what we think is Beaver Falls. The rope swing below Mooney Falls was especially refreshing around noon with the sunshine reaching the bottom of the canyon. Our hike took us through the beautiful valley of vines and carried us a total of about 4 miles round-trip back to the campground. The second day we hiked back upstream to visit Havasu Falls, Rock Falls, and New Navajo Falls. By lunch we decided to begin our hike back out of the canyon, but we only made it as far as the village before we decided to fore go the beautiful hike out and take the helicopter ride instead. This got us back to Chili's restaurant in Kingman, AZ by dinner and back to Las Vegas by nightfall.

I knew that this trip would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience as it was every bit as beautiful as I imagined from the pictures I had seen. What I didn't expect was such a strong desire to return again. I highly recommend it. Let me know if you would like more details or especially if you would like to invite me along on your trip to guide.

Click below to see most of my pictures from the trip:

Havasupai Trip